P.M. NEWS THURSDAY 1-16-14

28-year-old Jennifer Morris of east branch has been remanded to the Delaware county jail for violating the terms of probation for falsely reporting an incident last year. Morris is accused of getting onto a social media site with a cell phone last week, she was arrested last year for claiming that there was a bomb at the Walton Central School last September.

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On the 1-year anniversary of the passing of the New York safe act, gun control groups and Democratic Lawmakers said that the state should not stop at the law passed last year. State legislators against Illegal Guns-NY said that they want legislation that additional safety of gun storage for those with children, requires all semi-automatic handguns that puts a code on each spent shell casing, called micro-stamping, and limit buyers to 1 handgun purchase a month. Republicans that control the state senate are unlikely to support those proposals.

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U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said that the federal funding for low income heating assistance would increase by $169 million dollars in the coming fiscal year, to a total of 3.4 billion dollars. Schumer said had called on the appropriators to raise the funding following the extreme low temperatures earlier this month. New York families whose income are 150% of the federal poverty level or lower are eligible, more information is available at otda.ny.gov.

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13% of New York schools face some degree of fiscal distress with several having significant financial problems, according to a report from state comptroller tom DiNapoli, who warned that schools are dealing with budget deficits, limited revenue and depleted reserve funds. The report showed that the struggles were worse among upstate schools, it can found at osc.state.ny.us.

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New York’s senators reported that 33.7 million dollars for the national stream gauge network is included in appropriations before congress. Senators Schumer & Gillibrand said the 6 million dollar increase in funding would help strengthen gauges in upstate counties that provide flood warnings during severe weather. The senators said that the money would help the US Geological survey keep existing gauges online and allow the ISGS to add more gauges in the high-risk flood zones in the upstate regions.

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SUNY Delhi has received national recognition for their online nursing program. The 2014 edition of US News & World report, SUNY Delhi is at the top of the list for the best bachelor’s program, the program started 5 years ago when enrollment was projected to be around 50 students, the number has risen to 750. SUNY Delhi was also recently approved for the 1st graduate program for a master’s in science for nursing.